In the Heart of the Country...

Text from the "bilingual" version of In the Heart of the Country (section 203), published by Ravan Press in South Africa, 1978.  This page seems to show especially poignantly how the "bilingualism" of this version of the text speaks to the particular language politics of (apartheid) South Africa.  While I do not want to claim that any one version of the novel is the "true" or "original" version, I do think that the different versions carry different nuances and even allow for different kinds of meaning-making from readers, especially given Coetzee's concern with language, anyway.

Dusklands



This looks very tidy, doesn't it?  But Coetzee's text is not quite as tidy as, say, Heart of Darkness.  What makes it messy (and that much more interesting) is the impossibility of the bulk of the narrative actually being Jacobus Coetzee's own words / text / ideas (leaving aside, for the moment, the added inconvenience of "Jacobus Coetzee" being a character in a novel rather than a "real" person.....).

French map of Africa (1772)

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! This semester (Fall 2011) I am teaching a graduate seminar in J. M. Coetzee at California State University, Northridge. I will be using this blog to, in part, document the course, post some of my teaching notes, and reflect on my own growing relationship with Coetzee's work.

Ian Barnard, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of English

California State University, Northridge

The Danger of a Single Story ...